A Sinkhole Caves In A Downtown Detroit Street, Near Auto Show

January 20th, 2014, 8:43 AM

A sinkhole has disrupted traffic just blocks from the North American International Auto Show in downtown Detroit.

The hole originally was about twice as big as a manhole cover but now measures about 14 feet by 10 feet and is on Randolph street at the intersection of Jefferson, next to the Coleman A. Young municipal building and the Millender Center, WWJ-AM reports.

“Well, unfortunately we are a pretty old city, we have older substructures underneath the roadways, and so at the moment we are not sure,” MDOT spokeswoman Diane Cross told WWJ. “Age is always a factor – that’s going to be the kind of thing that’s going to have to be determined as well.

The opening of the street reveled old brick work under the surface. The site would have been a settled part of Detroit going back almost to the city's founding in 1701.